Mollie is publishing a chapter of her book The Beauty All Along in weekly installments. If you’re missed a chapter, you can catch up by reading previous chapters.
PART ONE
CHAPTER 1 (CONTINUED)
When I met Jebediah I thought he was fantastic. He was interesting and funny and— like Ava and I— he was always up for anything. The three of us spent the day in Madison buying sleds, writing all over them, finding an icy hill which we painfully threw ourselves down and then playing a joke on Ava where we would drive off right as she got to the car. That night I met Jebediah’s parents. Then the three of us spent the rest of the day talking on the couch and then while soaking in the hot tub.
Ava loved everything about Jebediah: His strong inclination for social justice and counterculture, as well as his ahead-of-the-times hipster beard and the way he wasn’t like anyone else she knew. The girl had locked in; she wanted him badly. It consumed her.
Ava’s obsession manifested as jealousy over my new fr…